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GOVERNING ALBERTA:

C I T I Z E N S ’ V I E W S

Governing Alberta: Citizens’ Views

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Contents

Governing Alberta: Citizens’ ViewsHarvey Krahn and Trevor Harrison This report was published by the Parkland Institute

To obtain additional copies of this report or

Parkland InstituteUniversity of Alberta

About the Authors

About Parkland InstituteExecutive Summary

Figures

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About the authorsHarvey Krahn is a Professor and Chair of Sociology at the University of

Alberta.

Trevor Harrison is the Director of Parkland Institute and a Professor of

Sociology at the University of Lethbridge.

AcknowledgementsThe authors wish to thank Shannon Stunden Bower and Ricardo Acuña

for their comments on an earlier draft of this report, and also the two

anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments and suggestions.

Thanks also to Nicole Smith Acuña and Flavio Rojas.


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Parkland Institute is an Alberta research network that examines public

policy issues. Based in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Alberta, it

includes members from most of Alberta’s academic institutions as well as

other organizations involved in public policy research. Parkland Institute was

founded in 1996 and its mandate is to:

Albertans and Canadians.

to the media and the public.

All Parkland Institute reports are academically peer reviewed to ensure the

integrity and accuracy of the research.

For more information, visit www.parklandinstitute.ca

About the Parkland Institute


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Executive summaryAlberta today confronts many policy challenges, including the issues of

royalties and taxes, the pace and scope of development, the challenge of

diversifying economic growth, and the need to promote a healthy society

and environment. No less important, however, is the process by which

decisions are made about these issues, including opportunities for and the

degree of citizenship engagement.

This report uses public opinion data collected by the Population Research

Laboratory at the University of Alberta in June 2012 to examine citizens’

views on governance in Alberta. It addresses respondents’ opinions on

popular democracy, political alienation, the workings of government, and

the political process. Responses are analyzed in relation to voting preference,

region, educational attainment, gender, age, and home ownership. Where

instructive, results are compared with responses to similar questions included

in the authors’ 2003 study of democracy in Alberta.

Despite key differences, principally related to distinctions of region,

in Albertans’ views on the political process. For example, Albertans of

all political stripes remain strongly supportive of electoral voting. This

result stands in marked contrast with Alberta’s pattern of decreasing voter

turnout. While the precise causes of this contradiction are unclear, requiring

limits provides one possible explanation. Perhaps many Albertans view the

political competition, and limiting opponents’ abilities to speak out.

High levels of political alienation are also evident in other aspects of

Albertans’ responses. Except among governing party supporters, there is a

sense that their concerns will not be heard. This result should be of concern

to all Albertans. Political alienation, perpetuated over time, is corrosive of

democracy and the legitimacy of government institutions.

There is strong support for some traditionally populist measures, especially

direct voting, and – perhaps surprisingly to those viewing Alberta from afar

– strong support also for the importance of protest groups in democracy.

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Governing Alberta: Citizens’ Views raises serious questions regarding the state of

democracy in Alberta. The importance of these questions is redoubled by

the challenges facing the province at this time, such as reform to systems of

and the need for environmental protection. The study results suggest

directions, but also about how to re-engage the Alberta public in the political

process.


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1. Introduction

Alberta faces many policy challenges, including the issue of royalties and

taxes, the pace and scope of development, the challenge of diversifying

economic growth, and the need to promote a healthy society and

environment. No less important, however, is the process by which decisions

are made about these issues, including opportunities for and the degree of

citizenship engagement.

In 2003, the authors wrote a report for Parkland Institute regarding

Albertans’ opinions about how the province was governed, and about the

health and practice of democracy in the province.1 The data used in that

study were based on the 2003 Alberta Survey conducted by the Population

Research Laboratory (PRL) at the University of Alberta. This report

similarly uses data from the PRL’s 2012 Alberta Survey, to once again look

at citizens’ opinions about how the province is governed. While the 2012

study repeats some of the same questions examined in 2003, it is not an

exact replication. Instead, it provides a fresh look at Albertans’ opinions

nearly ten years later.

with support for possible changes to the political process. Responses to

these questions are further cross-tabulated by voting preference, region,

educational attainment, gender, age, and home ownership.2 Where

instructive, the results are compared with responses to the same questions on

the 2003 survey.

1 T. Harrison, W. Johnston, and H. Krahn, Trouble in Paradise? Citizens’ Views on Democracy in Alberta (Edmonton: Parkland Institute, 2003).

2 We did not examine cross-tabulations for household income because, as is the case in most public opinion surveys today, a sizeable minority (22%) of respondents chose not to answer this question. Cross-tabulations by community size were not calculated since that variable was not included in the 2012 survey.

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2. Research Design and Sample Characteristics

Since 1987, the Population Research Laboratory (PRL) at the University of

Alberta has annually conducted the Alberta Survey. It is an omnibus survey

in which a number of different researchers share the costs of data collection

The PRL uses a Random-Digit Dialling (RDD) approach to ensure that

respondents have an equal chance of being contacted whether or not

their household is listed in a telephone directory. The PRL has developed

a database of eight-digit telephone banks covering the Edmonton and

Calgary metropolitan areas, as well as the remainder of the province. The

2012 Alberta Survey sample was generated from these databases by using a

computer program to select, with replacement, a simple random sample of

banks for each area, and appending a random number between 00 and 99

to each number selected. Duplicate telephone numbers were purged from

the computer list. Within the household, one eligible person was selected as

the respondent.

Contacted by trained and supervised interviewers, adult residents (age

18 and older) were then invited to participate in the 20-minute survey. A

quota sampling system was used to obtain equal numbers of female and

male respondents. To ensure regional representation, a disproportionate

metropolitan Edmonton, metropolitan Calgary, and the rest of the province.

percent. The survey results reported in this paper are weighted to correct

for the small extent to which the two metropolitan areas were over-sampled.

A quick overview of the socio-demographic characteristics of sample

members indicates that this group of randomly selected Alberta adults was

representative of the provincial (adult) population. The sample was equally

divided among males and females. The age categories of the sample were as


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Thirty-four percent of the sample lived in the metropolitan Calgary region,

were currently married or living with a partner.

education.

were retired.

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3. Measurement

general political statements. Given what some have depicted as a general

disengagement by Albertans in the political process,3 one of these questions

dealt with a sense of political alienation:

Two other questions tapped into respondents’ views about popular

democracy (voting and protest) that may be contrasted with a different

question regarding expert decision-making:4

Finally, we also employed a question, used in the 2003 survey, that examined

Albertans’ beliefs about the appropriate way for governments to be run:5

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survey, but has been included on the annual Alberta Survey on several other

occasions.

of possible changes to the political process:

that a party receiving 20 percent of all the votes gets 20 percent of all the

3 See especially, K. Brownsey, “Ralph Klein and the Hollowing of Alberta” and D. Soron, “The Politics of De-politicization: Neo-liberalism and Popular Consent in Alberta,” both in The Return of the Trojan Horse: Alberta and the New World (Dis)Order, ed. T.W. Harrison (Montreal: Black Rose, 2005).

4 The idea of leaving government to experts has roots in the technocracy movement that itself has a history in Alberta, dating back at least to the founding of Social Credit in the province: see D. Laycock, “Populism and the New Right in English Canada,” in Populism and the Mirror of Democracy, ed. F. Panizza (London: Verso, 2005).

5 One anonymous reviewer suggested that agreement with this statement might reflect a preference for efficiency in government more so than a desire for governments to adopt a business model (i.e. less democratic) of governance. Whatever the underlying meaning, the responses to this statement along partisan lines (see Figure 2 below) are interesting.

6 A sixth related item stated that: “Private industry is always more efficient than government.” Forty percent of the sample agreed, with 16% agreeing strongly.


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Except for the question about required voting, each of these questions was

also asked on the 2003 survey.

Several of these measures address political issues with deep roots in Alberta’s

and Canada’s history. Direct voting and recall have been historically

popular with right-populist parties, such as Social Credit and more recently

the Reform Party of Canada.7 By contrast, the concept of proportional

representation has most often been associated with the left-populist

tradition.8

The issue of election spending in Alberta is a perennial concern, as

current rules allow for exceptionally large (compared to other provinces)

contributions to political parties, and largely unregulated spending at

election, when it became known that a prominent Edmonton businessman,

Daryl Katz, and his family had given an enormous contribution to the

Conservative party – a contribution under investigation by Alberta’s Chief

For all of the cross-tabulations discussed below, a 0.01 level of statistical

groups (e.g. between supporters of different political parties, or between

women and men) are treated as worthy of comment (i.e. statistically

7 See A. Finkel, The Social Credit Phenomenon in Alberta (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1989); D. Laycock, Populism and Democratic Thought in the Canadian Prairies, 1910-1945 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990); and T. Harrison, Of Passionate Intensity: Right-Wing Populism and the Reform Party of Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995).

8 For a discussion of proportional representation see H. Milner, “The Case for Proportional Representation,” Policy Options (November 1997): 6-9.

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4. Results

4a. General Political Opinions

The results (Figure 1) show exceptionally strong support for the importance

fairly steady decline in voting in Alberta since the early 1970s, including an

a discussion of this discrepancy later in this report.

Perhaps surprisingly, given Alberta’s reputation as a conservative province,

but only moderate support for the notion that government should be run

of political alienation. This result, too, requires further exploration (below).

notion of leaving government to experts.

from 2003.9

9 In 2003, 59% agreed (27% strongly) that “protest groups” were important; 50% agreed (26% strongly) that government should be run like a business; and only 16% (7% strongly) that government should be left to experts.


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4a (i) General Political Opinions and Political Party Preferences

General political views may vary according to one’s political party

preferences. To see if this was the case for the questions we asked in 2012,

The 2012 Alberta Survey was conducted roughly two months after the 2012

provincial election held on April 23. That election was highly contested, with

the relatively new Wildrose Alliance Party for a time seeming to be on the

road to victory. In the end, the governing Progressive Conservative party was

In our analysis, we concentrated on the subset of survey respondents who

and 183 who said they did not know for whom they would vote).10

Within

were non-partisan. With the non-partisan group excluded, the percentages

While the survey percentages (non-partisans excluded) very closely match

the percentage of the popular vote received by the Liberals and NDP in the

2012 provincial election, there is a clear discrepancy with respect to support

between the actual election and when the survey was conducted (two months

later). Some respondents who may actually have voted Wildrose might have

provided a revisionist account of their election behaviour, bringing their

behaviour in line with the election result. This discrepancy aside, the results

show some interesting differences in general political opinions by party

preference (Figure 2).

As already noted, virtually everyone agreed that voting is an important

part of democracy. At the same time, we found partisan differences that

express agreement with this belief. The reasons for this difference are

unclear, but it may be that NDP supporters view democracy in a somewhat

broader manner. For some of them, voting is perhaps a necessary but

democratic practice.

10 Omitted from the analysis were 205 respondents (about 1/6 of the total 1207), including 15 who mentioned other parties, seven who gave other reasons for not voting, 23 who said they were not eligible, and 160 who did not respond to the question.

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does not care what they think. This result takes on greater importance

of Wildrose and NDP supporters, respectively. Given that the PCs have

been in government since 1971 and had just won another election, it is

they are the government. By contrast, other party supporters (as well as non-

partisans) presumably feel more excluded.

the major parties on the other general political questions. The NDPs

and Liberals were identical in their agreement that protest groups are an

The Wildrose Alliance party has a reputation as a small-government – even

anti-government – party with a pro-business bent. Supporters of that party

like a business. By contrast, NDP and Liberal supporters held particularly

the question of leaving government to experts, though Liberal supporters

were somewhat more in agreement with this idea.


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4a (ii) General Political Opinions and Region of Province

The provincial election of 2012 revealed marked political preference

differences by region, with the PCs showing strength in the major cities and

the northern and central regions of Alberta, Wildrose appearing strongest

in the central and southern regions and parts of Calgary, and the NDP and

Liberals attracting voters primarily in the major cities. Given these regional

differences in voting patterns, we felt it would be useful to examine responses

to the general political questions across the three residential regions sampled

in the 2012 Alberta Survey: Edmonton, Calgary, and the rest of the

province.

As shown in Figure 3, there was very little support for leaving government

the importance of voting, this difference may also be viewed as largely

irrelevant given the almost complete agreement overall with this statement.

For the other general political questions, however, sharp differences were

found between those living in non-metropolitan Alberta versus those in

the two major cities. Non-metropolitan residents were considerably more

likely to agree that the government (i.e. the Progressive Conservatives)

does not care about what they think and that government should be run

like a business, results that correspond with the Wildrose Alliance party’s

support in rural areas in the election and as seen in the earlier analysis

that protest groups are an important part of democracy, this percentage was

still substantially less than the level of agreement in both Edmonton and

Calgary.

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4a (iii) General Political Opinions and Educational Attainment

The 2012 Alberta Survey asked respondents to report their educational

these were collapsed into three broad categories: (1) less than or completed

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little support for leaving government to experts, and near unanimous support

regarding the importance of voting as part of democracy, statistically

that government does not care about what people like them think, compared

secondary education, believe government should be run like a business, only

is observed for the statement about the importance of protest groups, with

11 This was the same coding scheme used in the 2003 report.


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4b. Changes to Political Processes

the election process. The total sample results are shown in Figure 5.

surveyed also supported spending limits.

There was far less support, however, for the other proposed changes. Indeed,

respectively in 2003), though this change over time was statistically non-

generally low level of support for these proposed changes to the election

process suggests that attempts to institute political reform on these various

fronts might not be very successful.

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4b (i) Changes to Political Processes and Political Voting Preferences

Using the same political preference categories discussed earlier, we also

looked at differences in support for changes to election processes in Alberta

Given the traditional popularity of notions of direct democracy within right-

populist parties, the greater support observed for direct voting and recall

this item, then, populist appeals appear to span the political divide to some

extent.

Proportional representation – a traditionally left-populist measure – not

distinct outsiders on the question of proportional representation, with only


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4b (ii) Changes to Political Processes and Region of Province

political process questions – direct voting. Survey respondents in Calgary

processes than were those in Edmonton and the rest of Alberta (Figure

7). The reason for this difference is not immediately clear. Remembering,

however, that respondents in Calgary were less likely than their counterparts

in Edmonton and the rest of the province to agree that that the government

does not care what people like them think (Figure 3), we surmise that the

appeal of direct voting may be greater for those who feel more alienated

from the current political process.

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4b (iii) Changes to Political Processes and Educational Attainment

educated Albertans are statistically less likely to support direct voting and

recall of elected members (Figure 8) than those with less than a university

education. The cross-political support for these populist measures, found

In the broad context, the results suggest a strong educational divide within

Alberta on the matter of political opinions.


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4c. Differences by Gender, Age, and Home Ownership

We also cross-tabulated responses to the two sets of political statements

(general political attitudes and changes to political processes) by three other

socio-demographic variables: gender, age, and home ownership.

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support for this notion is notably marginal for both groups.

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12 This difference was not statistically significant in 2003. In the earlier survey, men were marginally more likely than women to agree on the importance of protest groups (60% versus 58%).

13 As in the 2003 study, age was recoded into three basic categories: 18-34; 35-54; 55 +.

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5. ConclusionThis report updates, and for some questions replicates, an earlier

examination of Albertans’ opinions about how the province is governed, and

not entirely surprising. Political attitudes do not shift quickly except in times

of severe crisis, and sometimes not even then.

results are particularly striking. First, Albertans of all political stripes remain

strongly supportive of electoral voting. Second, Albertans at large also voice

strong support for election spending limits. Finally, though the results do not

cross all partisan boundaries, there is strong support for some traditionally

populist measures, especially direct voting, and – perhaps surprisingly to

those viewing Alberta from afar – strong support also for the importance of

protest groups in democracy.

have already noted that this result stands in marked contrast with Alberta’s

pattern of decreasing voter turnout. The precise causes of this contradiction

are unclear, requiring further research, but the question of spending limits

provides one possible explanation. Perhaps many Albertans view the

political competition, and limiting opponents’ abilities to speak out.

of a high level of political alienation among respondents. Except among

governing party supporters, there is a sense that their concerns will not be

heard. This result should be of concern to all Albertans, including members

of the governing party. Political alienation, perpetuated over time, is

corrosive of democracy and the legitimacy of government institutions, and

poses unforeseen perils.

reveals strong differences on political views along the lines of region and

educational attainment, as well as age.

Going forward, as more people move into urban areas, as the educational

level of Albertans continues to rise, and as the population gradually

ages, these differences may prove at least as important to consider as

the outwardly partisan manner through which political differences are

expressed. This report raises serious questions, not only regarding the state

of democracy today in Alberta, but also about where it may be going at a

time of rapid economic, environmental, and social change.


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